Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to automatically begin bringing new web traffic is publish great content on a consistent basis!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will explain what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different than a professionally configured site, and just what type of work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is fully set up and configured, you will begin attracting new visitors automatically when you begin to publish new content regularly to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Also, the business landscape is becoming increasingly more competitive and businesses are looking for any advantage available to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Phase Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let me illustrate this point with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Things are running smoothly in the widget factory when everything comes to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, walks directly towards the control box. After staring at the schematics for 2 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a single tap near the left-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, the whole machine comes back to life.
The floor manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Unable to contain his anger, the manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than five minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for investing years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although the solution to many challenges can seem ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to get certain results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to ensure that everything works as planned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your web server, your web site, and a number of external sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a brief look at these steps.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your website may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
Third-Party Solutions
The concept behind choosing external sites is that all of your content is posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your traffic system, content pointing back to your website is automatically published on search, social and aggregator accounts. Your site will benefit from exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential data, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, traffic tracking information can be integrated with WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site data, use this information to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your web traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and bring new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up profiles with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are many different platforms you can add to your own traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify all the update services you have listed when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring Settings – Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your site is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines to find and index …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your site, some themes also include options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with all government legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
If you need help understanding the importance of having a legally compliant website, go here:
Post Tags & Post Categories
Tags & post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s categories and tags should be set up during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google will index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL into their web browser or click on an invalid hyperlink, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do to automatically bring web traffic is add web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes many web professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively using a WordPress website and proven online marketing methods.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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